Gundam SEED: Evolution
by The Old Rycr
Summary: Cagalli is shot and nearly killed while on the way to a Parliament meeting, setting a chain of events in motion. Can she and the others avert the coming catastrophe?
1. Pulling the Trigger

_**Well, here it is! This is my next story, though it's my first in the Gundam metaseries. I hope you all enjoy **_**Gundam SEED: Evolution.**

_**Just a quick note: If you haven't watched all of Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny, you probably shouldn't read this story, as there are plenty of spoilers, especially in the beginning. Anyway, from now on, I will attempt to have no author notes (except disclaimers) at the top of the page, and just put it all on the bottom.**_

_**Speaking of disclaimers: I don't own Gundam SEED or anything related to it, and most likely never will. I own this story's plot, and any OCs I should decide to make. However, rest assured that I won't be making any major OC protagonists.**_

_**On with the story!  
**_

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_**Chapter 1 – Pulling the Trigger**_

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The Athha family residence is located atop a hill overlooking the capital city of the Orb Union and the Atlantic Ocean not far beyond it. It was an extremely old house, dating back to the early years of space exploration, long before the Cosmic Era began. Its beautiful Victorian architectural style was even older. Within, the place was a maze, impossible to navigate effectively without a good sense of the layout of the mansion.

One person navigated the various halls and rooms with ease, admiring the artwork, old and new, that decorated its walls. He knew exactly where his destination was, and exactly how to reach it. He was a young man with long midnight-blue hair. His emerald eyes roamed around, stopping for a moment to focus on every door he passed. His attire was somewhat professional, as he had opted for a collared shirt tucked into black dress pants, rather than the t-shirt and jeans he would have preferred.

Athrun Zala smiled as he walked down the hallway towards his destination. It had been nearly two years since the Second Bloody Valentine War had ended with his final battle in front of the Messiah. He was grateful for the end of the war, and the two relatively peaceful years he had lived since. He had started smiling again, doing his best to put the horrors of the war behind him. Still, it was just shy of one year since his happiness had been shattered…

_Don't think about that!_ he berated himself as he walked, his smile gone. Luckily, his thoughts were diverted when he heard the racket from just a few doors further down the long hallway.

"KIRA YAMATO!!!"

His frown became a smile again when he heard the deafening shout. There was a thick oak door between him and the one who had shouted, and the door itself was over twenty feet away, but he could still hear the female voice as if she had shouted in his ear. He immediately recognized the voice.

"I'm sorry, Cagalli!" another voice exclaimed.

Athrun finally reached the door that was the only barrier between himself and the chaotic shouting match. With a small grin, he decided to wait for a moment and see how the argument played out. Arguments between the two twins occurred on an hourly basis, though they were usually resolved quickly. Athrun suspected that Kira and Cagalli just liked to fight and goad each other.

Kira and Lacus had both returned from PLANT a little over a year before, though neither had ever explained why. At the moment, Lacus was busy with some TERMINAL business, and wouldn't be back for several days. Cagalli had gotten very incensed when it was suggested by several members of the Council and the director of her security that she should have at least one bodyguard, if not a full contingent. She hated being protected, because she automatically assumed that they believed she wasn't capable of defending herself. As a compromise, Kira had offered to become her bodyguard. Because she was much more comfortable with her twin brother than she was with the unknown people who would be protecting her, she had reluctantly agreed.

Athrun himself had also become a bodyguard, after…

"Damn it," he muttered out loud. "Don't think about it!"

"Don't EVER do that again!" Cagalli shouted, interrupting his thoughts.

"Don't ever do _what_ again?" Kira asked. Athrun chuckled as he imagined the absolutely innocent expression that was undoubtedly on his friend's face.

"DON'T _**EVER **_POUR COLD WATER ON ME!!!" Cagalli exclaimed. Athrun could imagine her face as well, bright red with anger, probably darkening to a dark bloody color. He took a moment to fear for Kira's life. Nobody who saw her face get past the angry bright red stage lived to tell the tale.

"I'm sorry!" Kira shouted, trying to console her. "You wouldn't wake up, so I…wait! What are you…NO! That's _glass_! It'll—"

Athrun winced when Kira was interrupted by a loud crash in the room, and decided that he should enter and try to diffuse the situation before they killed each other. He opened the door just in time to see Cagalli tackle Kira and land on top of him on the ground, surrounded by the shards of what might have been a perfectly good glass vase only moments before.

If anybody but Athrun, Lacus, or some other close friends had seen this, they might have commented on the rather compromising situation the two of them found themselves in, with Cagalli's face only inches from Kira's own. As Athrun was one of the two who knew they were siblings, he could easily tell that they were feeling anger, rather than awkwardness, and this was confirmed when he saw that Cagalli's face was indeed darkening from its bright red color, and Kira's face was taking on a crimson hue as they both glared at each other.

Now that the twin siblings, separated at birth, had been reunited on a more permanent basis, they had finally gotten over the awkwardness between them that had been caused by the revelation that they were related. They had been acting more and more like the twin siblings they were, having many arguments sprouting from sibling rivalry, and yet remaining fiercely loyal to each other when one of them was threatened.

Athrun chuckled quietly, alerting the two of his presence. Cagalli quickly stood up, her face retaining its red coloring. This was the red of embarrassment though, rather than the red of anger. She and her sibling had once again been caught fighting, an occurrence that always embarrassed them, even though it happened on a daily basis.

"Um…ah…good morning, Athrun," Kira greeted with a sheepish grin as Cagalli went into the bathroom to dry her hair, which was still wet from Kira's method of waking her up.

"Morning," Athrun replied jovially. "Having fun?"

"Ah, well," Kira muttered, suddenly grinning, "yeah, I guess. I've just been annoying my baby sister."

"I heard that, baby brother!" Cagalli shouted from the bathroom. "I'm the older one!"

Athrun sighed. Unlike most arguments between the two of them, which eventually ended with one of them proving that he or she was right, neither could ever agree on this simple fact.

"You're both babies, if you ask _me_," he said to them.

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"So, what's your first meeting about today?" Athrun asked as he drove the convertible, glancing at Cagalli in the rear-view mirror.

"First I have to meet the rest of the Council to discuss a few issues that have come up lately," Cagalli explained with a sigh, "including the fact that war seems to once again be looming on the horizon."

Her statement about the potential for another war was quite true. Though the Earth Alliance and PLANT had officially been at peace with each other over the past two years, there were still isolated incidences between Naturals and Coordinators, causing tensions to rise on both sides. Though they were severely weakened by the downfall of LOGOS, the Blue Cosmos seemed to still be functioning without the financial support they had received before the second war. There had been various protests that occasionally escalated to violence and even murder of both Naturals and Coordinators. The whole situation made Cagalli very uneasy.

_Actually, _she realized, _I wasn't this anxious until I got in the car…_

She spent another moment wondering what, besides the tensions between PLANT and Earth, could be unnerving her so much, then sighed, knowing that it was probably just the stress of the job. She glanced off to the side and watched the people and cars stream past their own vehicle, going about their daily lives. _If only my life was that simple, _she thought, _but I can't just give up my—_

Her train of thought was derailed as her apprehension suddenly spiked. Her fearful gaze was inexplicably drawn to one of the windows on a several-storey building not far ahead. For a moment, it looked like any other window. Then she saw a silver rifle barrel poke out of the shadowed opening and aim towards her. Just as the shooter pulled the trigger, some instinct or reaction caused her to jerk to the left, causing the bullet aimed at her heart to miss the vital organ. Still, her luck wasn't exactly great, she realized, as she felt a horrible pain in the right side of her chest and found it very difficult to breathe. She slumped over to the side in agony, her breath coming in short gasps.

"_**CAGALLI!!!**_" an unrecognizable voice shouted right before everything went black and the pain went away.

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Athrun gasped as he heard the gunshot from the nearby building that looked like an apartment complex. He glanced to the right and his own fearful eyes met Kira's. They both nearly gave themselves whiplash as they turned back to glance into the back seat.

"_**CAGALLI!!!**_" Athrun shouted as he saw her slump over and fall unconscious. His wide eyes saw the blood that was already spreading on the right side of her shirt and dripping down onto the car seat. There was a lot of it, and it was still pumping out.

"Keep driving!" Kira shouted as he undid his seatbelt and leapt out of the still-moving car. He rolled when he landed and ran for the sniper's building immediately after coming back to his feet. Athrun closed his mouth, which had dropped open in shock, and drove off towards the nearest TERMINAL facility. Their hideouts had the best doctors, and as a good friend of the leader of TERMINAL, Lacus Clyne, Cagalli would be treated in their hospital. Their doctors and surgeons were among the best in the world in their fields, so if anybody could save her, they could.

Kira entered the building that the shooter was in and immediately headed for the stairs. He ran up to the second floor landing and stopped to listen. He was rewarded by the sound of running footsteps on the carpeted stairs, so he stopped just around the corner to wait for the right moment.

A man ran around the corner and Kira quickly grabbed his shirt collar and picked him up, slamming his back into the wall and holding him up by his shirt.

"Who do you work for?" he asked in a low voice full of malice. "Why?"

The man remained silent, so Kira pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the shooter's heart. His hand shook slightly at the thought of possibly killing someone again, but he thought about his sister's peril and his aim steadied.

"_Who do you work for?_" Kira repeated, emphasizing each word.

"I don't feel the need to tell you," the man choked out, "as my life doesn't matter much anyway. Kill me if you want to. I've already pulled the trigger, and the bullet is already in flight."

"We'll see about that," Kira said, though he inwardly wondered why the shooter was using metaphors while in such a situation. "Now, if you don't answer my question, I will put you through many times more pain than what Cagalli just went through."

"I work…" the man started to say, suddenly smiling widely as if telling a rather funny joke that only he understood.

"For a blue and pure world."

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_**Well, that's the end of the first chapter. How do you like it? Anyway, I have a couple things to address down here. First, the thing that Athrun's trying not to think about will be explained within the next few chapters, along with why he ended up as Cagalli's bodyguard. I may explain why Kira and Lacus left PLANT, though I'm not sure if I'll fit it in just yet.  
**_

_**Second, this story is going to be mainly focused on Cagalli, and the huge changes she goes through, which aren't just limited to changes resulting from growing up. If you like Cagalli the way she was in GSD (i.e. practically useless), then DON'T READ THIS STORY! The one thing I didn't like in GSD was the way Cagalli was portrayed, as being largely useless for most of the series, and not showing up at all during the end. So, I decided to write a story where she is the main character.**_

_**So, now that the long(ish) author's note is done…please review!**_

_**Oh, by the way, the next chapter will be called ****"Thoughts**__**." I figured you'd like to know.**_


	2. Thoughts

**_I'm SO SO SO sorry! I didn't mean to take this long. I really didn't. However, I just haven't had any TIME! So, as a way of saying sorry, I'm posting two chapters for you guys to read. Please do me a favor and drop a separate review for each one, so I know what chapter you're talking about in your review, okay?_**

**_I don't own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters, mobile suits, ships, etc. associated with the series._**

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**_Chapter 2 – Thoughts  
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The rhythmic tapping of footsteps on tiled floor could be easily heard in a small room within one of the various secret TERMINAL complexes strewn about the nation of Orb. The room was bright, though in a monochromatic way. The harsh fluorescent lighting lit up the equally harsh white floor, walls, and celing. Black padded chairs lined two opposite walls. The third wall contained a set of automatic sliding doors and a screen embedded in the wall which was currently turned off, while the fourth had a similar set of doors and an off-white receptionist's desk. Sitting behind the desk was a young woman who looked particularly harassed, though she was trying not to show it.

There was a young man pacing back and forth between the two opposite-facing rows of chairs, and he was the source of the tapping noise as his shoes made contact with the floor. His collared shirt was untucked from his black pants and the top two buttons were undone. He was a mess, both physically and mentally.

Of course, Athrun Zala had a very good reason to be in such a mess. Cagalli Yula Athha, whom he was supposed to be guarding with his life, had ended up with her own life put in jeopardy instead.

Finally, the receptionist looked up from the form that she was trying to fill out and glared at him. "Would you _stop_ that?" she snapped at him. "I can't concentrate!"

Athrun stopped pacing and sat in one of the chairs with a sigh. "I'm sorry," he replied. "It's just…"

The woman's cold demeanor disappeared in an instant as she watched the man that many knew as one of the best mobile suit pilots in the world, the man who was unfazed by _any_ danger, the man who always seemed to be in control, just break down and nearly start crying. She was relatively new at her job in the hospital, and Athrun was the first person in the waiting room who had been so full of grief. The TERMINAL hospital never really had to deal with bad injuries and worried family or friends since the end of the second war. She sighed and was about to apologize when the set of doors across from her desk slid open with a hiss and Kira Yamato walked into the room.

Athrun looked up at the other set of doors, which were guarding the entrance to Cagalli's room, but saw to his despair that they were still closed, so he turned to look at the new arrival and attempted to smile for his best friend.

"Don't even try to look happy," Kira told him. "I know you're unhappy, so there's no point in pretending. Besides, I have some bad news."

Athrun sighed as he rested his chin on his palm. "Just tell me, I guess. I might as well take it all in one go."

Kira nodded and turned to the screen next to the set of doors he had just entered through. After he pressed several buttons, a news anchor appeared on the screen.

_"For those of you just tuning in now, here's a quick summary of the recent catastrophic events that have the various leaders of the Orb Union in chaos. Representative Cagalli Yula Athha, the young woman known for helping Orb recover from both of the recent wars, was regrettably murdered earlier today, as she was shot by a sniper from the window of a building as she was driven to an important Council meeting by her close friend and bodyguard, Admiral Athrun Zala, the famed mobile suit pilot. With them was Admiral Kira Yamato, perhaps the most famous mobile suit pilot in the world, also acting as a bodyguard. They left with her body and their whereabouts are currently unknown."_

Athrun gasped when footage began to play behind the news anchor. He realized that somebody had filmed the whole incident from another window. It showed the three of them driving for a few moments. Cagalli's eyes suddenly widened as she looked up, and she moved to the left just before the bullet pierced her chest. The video cut off right as the blood spurted from her wound, not showing Kira when he jumped out of the car to confront the would-be assassin.

_"The killer, who is most likely part of a rebel faction, was apprehended quickly by law enforcement officers, though he escaped soon after with the help of a partner and is still on the run. The location of Representative Athha's body is currently unknown, as are the whereabouts of her two bodyguards. It is actually widely believed that Admiral Yamato and Admiral Zala are part of the same faction as the killer, and were working with him to get Cagalli to the correct area so the killer could shoot her. They probably would have acted innocent, had this video not come up. They were clearly with her at the time of the murder and now none of the three can be found. Interim Representative Erik Aoshima had this to say…"_

"He escaped?" Athrun asked. A moment later, he realized what else the news anchor had said. "We're _criminals_?"

"Apparently so," Kira said as the scene on TV changed to the Representative's office, which Cagalli usually occupied. Instead of her, the television showed a man in his thirties, Cagalli's temporary replacement until things calmed down enough to properly elect a representative. "Just keep watching."

_"I express my deepest regrets and sadness about former Representative Athha's death earlier today, and I am sure she will be remembered for her bravery and her leadership during and after both wars, despite her disappearance during the start of the second war. However, we have an even bigger problem than just her death, one that must be dealt with immediately. It seems that her death was part of a plot by an unknown rebel faction to replace her with a fake, surgically altered to look and sound exactly like her, similar to the replacement of Lacus Clyne within PLANT during the war. Luckily, due to the video that was recovered earlier, we know of her death, so she cannot be easily replaced by a clone. I urge you all to call the police if you see somebody who looks like the former Representative, so they may properly apprehend her…"_

Athrun stared up at the TV in shock. "How could…" he started to ask, though he stopped and gasped as everything slid into place. "It was _him_!"

Kira nodded. "Yes, I believe that Erik Aoshima is a part of Blue Cosmos, or maybe even LOGOS, since there are still at least _some_ minor members left, apparently."

"What?" Athrun asked incredulously. "LOGOS isn't gone?"

"No, there are members remaining that we know of," Kira answered, "and probably many more that are just hiding among the general populace. Besides, if the Blue Cosmos had really lost their biggest supporter, they wouldn't have had the ability to pull off something like this."

"He wishes to take control of Orb," said a voice from the door. Kira let a weak half-smile appear on his face as he glanced up at Lacus Clyne. It only lasted a moment, and he quickly looked down in despair.

"So, he announced that part about the fake just to be safe, in case she's not dead," Athrun muttered, "so she can't just reappear and say she survived."

"Exactly," the other two said in unison."

"Damn, we have a real problem," Athrun muttered.

"Anyway, Kira," Lacus started, "I need to call everyone I can and tell them the truth about all this. I'll be right outside the waiting room."

"Tell the _Archangel_ to get out of the military shipyard and head to a TERMINAL complex," Kira said as she walked out. "You should let the rest of TERMINAL know what's going on too."

Lacus nodded as the sliding doors closed behind her. Athrun and Kira were left to sit in silence for several minutes. Finally, the door slid open. They both looked up, expecting to see Lacus reentering the room, only to find that a doctor had entered through the other set of doors.

"How is she?" Kira and Athrun asked in unison. The doctor gave a half-smile when he heard the two equally-concerned voices.

"Well, the operation was a complete success," he said. When he saw the smiles that lit up the faces of the two young men in front of him, he sighed deeply. "Honestly, she really should have died before you even got her here. Yet, she remained alive. That is extraordinary for a Natural, without the enhanced healing of a Coordinator. Either way, she still hasn't regained consciousness. Whether she lives or dies is all up to her now."

Both smiles disappeared, making the doctor deeply regret having to be the bearer of bad news.

"Can we…" Kira started to ask. The doctor just gestured to the door.

"Room 112," he said.

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Athrun's mind wandered as he walked down the hall with Kira towards Cagalli's room. He knew that losing Cagalli would probably drive him insane. He knew that they were more than friends, and yet, he really had no idea how to classify their relationship. They were much more than friends, but their old relationship hadn't worked out, and he wasn't sure they were right for each other. What could he call a relationship like that?

It was similar to the relationship he had with Kira. They said they were best friends, but it was a much stronger bond than that. They had started out as simply best friends when Athrun first left. When he returned, they were enemies, and yet they couldn't stand fighting each other. They felt that they could still be friends, if they weren't on two different sides of the war. So, when they had both defected from OMNI and ZAFT, they had become much better friends than before. They had become closer than ever before.

_Family_, he decided to call it. They were such good friends that they were no longer just friends. They were family.

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Kira glanced at his companion and sighed. Athrun's eyes were unfocused, and he was probably thinking about the past.

Athrun hadn't exactly had a perfect life. He had lost his mother in the Bloody Valentine attack. His father had gone insane, which had resulted in his own downfall and death. He had been forced to fight, to kill people who he never really had a quarrel with. And then there was what happened almost exactly a year ago, the tragedy that had led to Athrun becoming one of Cagalli's bodyguards. Now, he was worried that he might lose Cagalli too.

Kira rolled his eyes when he realized that his own life wasn't exactly the best either. Sure, it was nothing compared to Athrun's past, but he had struggled through some horrors of his own, from the destruction of Heliopolis to the battle at the Messiah.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and looked up at the door in front of them.

_Room 112_.

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When the two best friends entered Cagalli's room, they gasped in dismay. Cagalli was no longer covered with blood, though there was a large bandage on her chest. However, her skin was almost a colorless shade of gray, and her body seemed frailer than it had just a few hours before. Other than the faint noise of her breathing and the monotonous beeping of the heart monitor, the room was deathly silent.

"Cagalli," Kira whispered.

"She looks so strange now," Athrun muttered to himself. Kira glanced at Athrun and nodded.

"It's because she looks so peaceful, right?"

"Yeah," Athrun answered with a sigh. "She'd probably be yelling at both of us right now if she was awake. She hates getting pity from others."

Kira just nodded and they lapsed into complete silence once again, hoping and praying that she would make it. She was Kira's twin sister, and he knew that Athrun probably still had feelings for her, whether he would admit it or not. Neither of them wanted to lose her.

"When she recovers, we'll all have some hard work to do," Athrun said abruptly.

Kira just smiled ruefully as he looked at his best friend of many years.

"We always do," he replied with a quiet sigh.

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_**So, that's it for chapter 2. Please review and go on to chapter 3!**_


	3. Dreams

**_So, here's the next chapter. It explains a few things, but there are still some questions left..._**

**_I don't own anything you recognize from Gundam SEED or Gundam SEED Destiny._**

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**_Chapter 3 – Dreams  
_  
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_Cagalli grinned widely as she looked at Athrun. His emerald eyes held such intensity when they regarded her._

"Cagalli," he said, "I…"

"Yes?" she asked, waiting for him to continue though she knew what he would say.

"I think…I think I lo—"

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Cagalli opened her eyes with a start and saw a white ceiling above her. She spent a moment wondering about her dream, which had been completely absurd. Athrun didn't think of her that way, and she didn't see him that way either.

_Right?_ she asked herself. To her surprise and slight dismay, she had no answer.

Suddenly, she remembered that the ceiling of her bedroom was not white, but in fact a light gold color. So, where could she possibly be? She spent another moment thinking about that, though the rhythmic beeping in the room kept interrupting her thoughts.

Finally, her mind caught up with her, and she remembered what had happened recently. So, that meant she must have been in a hospital. The beeping was a heart monitor. She took a moment to look around and realized that she was probably in a TERMINAL building. That was good. Unless the would-be assassin himself was a member of TERMINAL, she was completely safe here.

She turned her head to the side when she heard somebody breathing deeply. She thought she would have seen Kira, and was surprised to see that it was Athrun instead. As if he could unconsciously sense her gaze, his emerald eyes opened and stared straight into her amber ones. It took a few moments before Athrun realized what he was seeing. Once he did, a huge smile appeared on his face.

"Cagalli!" he exclaimed. "You're awake!"

"Yeah," she tried to say. It came out as a hoarse whisper and she cringed as she felt a slight pain in her chest. With a frown, she asked, "Why can't I talk?"

"The bullet left two holes in your right lung," Athrun explained. "You're lucky it went all the way through your chest, because the doctors said they wouldn't have been able to remove it without killing you. Still, the surgery affected your vocal cords a bit, so you won't be able to talk normally for a few days at least. Still, it's a small price to pay for your life."

"Yeah," she muttered. "How long have I been out?"

"Er…three days," Athrun said hesitantly. He cringed, knowing what was coming.

"Three days?!" she tried to shout, though it came out as more of a croak. Athrun relaxed, realizing that she was physically unable to shout at him for the moment. She was scary when she was pissed off.

"Yes, and you'll probably be stuck in here for a while to recover."

"Seriously?!" Cagalli whispered. "I'll have to let everyone in Orb know I'm alright then. Damn, I'll have to give interviews with those stupid news anchors. I hate publicity…"

"Cagalli," Athrun interrupted her whispered rant, "you won't be able to do that, at least not for a while."

"Why?" she asked. "Aren't they wondering if I'm alright?"

"They think you're dead."

"WHAT?!" she exclaimed, managing somehow to shout despite her damaged lung. She grunted in pain and closed her eyes for a second until it faded back to a dull ache.

Athrun sighed and explained the situation to her, repeating everything that Kira had told him, as well as adding in a few things they had found out in the three days since then. Her pale face slowly took on a red hue as she listened to everything that had happened while she was unconscious. Then he mentioned something that left her even paler than before.

"LOGOS?" she asked, in shock. "But…they…"

"Yeah," Athrun said. "We think so."

"Another war is coming, isn't it?"

Athrun's moment of hesitation answered her question before he even said anything.

"Probably."

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The doctors said she would take around three weeks to recover after waking up from her temporary coma. As if she just wanted to prove them wrong, she was able to walk in just four days, and was nearly back to normal by the end of the week. Finally, she asked to leave, as she didn't need any more treatment, and the doctors reluctantly agreed.

"I've always recovered quickly from injuries," she explained every time anybody asked her how she was already up on her feet.

"Yeah," Kira replied when she gave him that answer as they left the hospital, "but never that quickly! You may not have recovered as fast as a Coordinator would, but you got better a hell of a lot faster than any Natural would!"

"We'll talk about that later," Cagalli said impatiently. "We have plans to discuss."

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"So, I'm dead," Cagalli said, "and you two are traitors."

Kira and Athrun both nodded.

"Lacus, what about you?" Cagalli asked the last occupant of the large meeting room. The four of them were sitting at one end of a table reminiscent of the one that the Representative had sat at every day at work before her supposed death. "How is your status within Orb?"

"I've simply disappeared," Lacus answered. "Everybody believes I am mourning you. Eventually, if I don't turn up, they'll find something to blame me for and I'll be in the same situation."

"So, do you think trying to stop the war before it happens is possible?" Cagalli asked the three of them.

"With things the way they are in Orb right now, the only one capable of making a difference at the moment would be Lacus," Kira answered, looking at his wife with a smile. He had proposed to her a few days after the end of the second war, and they had gotten married before they had left PLANT to live in Orb.

"Yeah," Athrun agreed. "Since the rest of us would be captured on the spot for being criminals or imposters, Lacus is the only one who can even appear in public."

Lacus nodded. "Well, I suppose I could make a few announcements, like I did at PLANT when I was replaced with…"

The other three occupants of the room saw Lacus fall silent as a single tear fell from her eye. Even though she had every right to hate the girl for attempting to take her place, Lacus just couldn't stop feeling sad about her death.

"Lacus, has the _Archangel_ arrived yet?" Cagalli asked, effectively changing the subject.

"They will be here by tomorrow," Lacus replied. "They had to run silently and underwater to get here without detection, and they spent several days evading the Orb military. I believe they have all been declared traitors as well."

"Oh, by the way, I believe everybody from the _Archangel_ is being transferred to another ship," Kira announced to the others. They all looked at him in surprise, so he continued, "Morgenroete recently finished a new _Archangel_-class ship that they've been working on for a while now. Apparently they upgraded the design."

"Ah, now I'm really curious," Cagalli said. "We should go see it later."

Athrun looked at his watch as he yawned. "Or maybe tomorrow," he said. "We've been in here for hours now."

The others nodded and they wrapped up their day-long meeting before going to the dormitory area of the TERMINAL complex.

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_"Athrun!"_

Athrun Zala smiled before he even turned around to see who was speaking. He knew her voice well, and was unsurprised to see that he had guessed right. Meyrin Hawke stood behind him with a large smile on her face. The two of them had each bought small nearby apartments in the Orb capital city soon after the end of the war, though Meyrin slept in his more often than her own.

"Morning, Meyrin," he greeted her from his spot on the balcony. "How are you?"

"Great!" she exclaimed happily. "It's so nice outside too!"

"Yeah, it's been exactly a year now…" Athrun muttered.

"What?"

"It's been a year since the end of the war," he explained. "It's been a year since I stopped fighting."

"Ah, so that's what you were thinking about when I came out," she realized. "I called your name three times, you know."

"Sorry, I just get lost in my thoughts sometimes."

She smiled and gave him a quick kiss. "I know," she said with a smile. "Anyway, let's go! I need to go shopping, and I know for a fact that you just happen to be out of eggs again."

He grinned and followed her out to the car. He opened the passenger door and let her get in, then went to his own side and started the car.

"So, how are you doing at your new job?"

"It's so boring," she lamented with a sigh. "All I do is type stuff into computers, look at stuff already on computers, and other little things like that. It kind of reminds me of my old job as a CIC on the Minerva, but much less useful. They also made me swear not to snoop around their computers, so I really have nothing to do once I'm done working."

Athrun laughed. Meyrin had always loved computers, and she was an extremely skilled hacker. Her abilities had helped them escape a ZAFT base once, when Athrun's loyalties were questioned and the military police were going to arrest him.

"Well, maybe…" He started to say as he glanced at her. He was about to look back in front of him, as they were driving through an intersection, when he saw a truck rapidly approaching on Meyrin's side of the car.

He tried to swerve, but it was already too late. The truck hit the side of the car and the airbags deployed. Meyrin's window shattered. He watched helplessly, pinned under the airbag, as a shard from the window tore a hole in her neck.

Her blood-spattered face turned towards him, and he saw her empty eyes. There was no longer a soul behind them.

"**MEYRIN!!!**"

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"**MEYRIN!!!**" Athrun shouted as his eyes snapped open and he shot up into a sitting position. His erratic breathing slowly steadied as he looked around and realized that he was not at the scene of an accident or in a hospital.

"The dream," he muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I had the dream again."

He slammed his fist on the wall and shouted a few curses. Now that he'd dreamed about it again, the memory of the day she had been so violently ripped from his life wouldn't go away.

"Athrun, are you okay?" a voice asked from outside the door. He smiled when he realized that it was Cagalli. He stood up to open the door.

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Cagalli awoke with a start as she heard a loud thump on her wall.

"DAMN IT!" somebody shouted, starting a string of curses. She smiled sadly as she recognized Athrun's voice. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

_He must have had the dream again_, she thought.

She sighed and stood up, making her way to the bedroom next to hers, and knocked on the door.

"Athrun, are you okay?" she asked. A few moments passed, and the door opened to reveal a pitiful Athrun. His hair was messed up and his face was sweaty. His eyes were red, and he was smiling sadly at her.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, she walked inside and hugged him as the door closed behind her. He stiffened up for a moment, then relaxed and hugged her back. After a few minutes of just standing there hugging each other, they finally broke apart, though they still stood very close to each other.

"It'll be okay," she whispered to him. "Everything will be okay."

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Athrun woke up the next morning and opened his eyes to see that he was in his bed and Cagalli was gone. He spent a moment wondering when she had left, until he realized the truth.

"She was never here," he mumbled to himself. It was just a happy dream following his recurring nightmare.

He got dressed and wandered over to the computer on a nearby desk, one that he had asked TERMINAL to provide for him. He turned it on and started to check the news to see if anything else had come up.

Nothing.

He sighed and leaned back in the chair, staring up at the ceiling without seeing it and remembering what had happened after the accident that he had seen in his nightmare.

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**_Well, that's it for chapter 3! Now we know the horrible event from Athrun's past that I've been hinting at. Anyway, please review and keep an eye out for chapter 4, coming some time within the next week or two, if I'm lucky!_**


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